Hello everyone, I'm from central Pennsylvania and have been lurking here for a bit.

I first became interested in Buddhism about 6 1/2 - 7 years ago. I started out reading on Zen and practicing zazen and such, but ultimately as I learned more about Theravada I gravitated toward that. I spent a week at Abhayagiri some years ago and loved the atmosphere at that location. I'd like to go back for a visit but, alas it is a continent away.

I lapsed in my practice later, but have recently - over the past several months - returned to regular practice and recommitted myself to Theravada Buddhism. I mainly practice samatha meditation (anapanasati). There's no Theravada community anywhere within reasonable distance of where I live, so that's the main reason I decided to join the board (there is a Chan monastery about 15 minutes away and I'm considering popping by there also).

So, that's a quick bit about me, looking forward to some excellent Dhamma friends in the virtual world.

...[I]t happens to a well-instructed disciple of the noble ones that something that is subject to illness grows ill... that something subject to death dies... that something subject to ending ends... that something subject to destruction is destroyed. With the destruction of what is subject to destruction, he reflects: 'It doesn't happen only to me that what is subject to destruction will be destroyed. To the extent that there are beings — past & future, passing away & re-arising — it happens to all of them that what is subject to destruction will be destroyed...'-Kosala Sutta, AN 5.49

---The trouble is that you think you have time------Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe------It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---

...[I]t happens to a well-instructed disciple of the noble ones that something that is subject to illness grows ill... that something subject to death dies... that something subject to ending ends... that something subject to destruction is destroyed. With the destruction of what is subject to destruction, he reflects: 'It doesn't happen only to me that what is subject to destruction will be destroyed. To the extent that there are beings — past & future, passing away & re-arising — it happens to all of them that what is subject to destruction will be destroyed...'-Kosala Sutta, AN 5.49

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725